Friday, July 19, 2013

Do you ever have a day where you wake up and from the get-go, God seems to have a specific message for your day? Like wherever you go- there it is! That doesn't happen a lot for me, but when it does, I can't help but slow down and say..."Ok, God. I'm listening! Teach away."

So...Sunday morning I sat down to my bowl of cereal and my giant cup of coffee and a chapter or two of Genesis, which is what I've been reading in the mornings. I'm pretty familiar with most of the stories in Genesis, but as I was reading Genesis Chapter 48, I found the passage is less familiar than most. It is about how Jacob is blessing Joseph's two sons before he dies. Strangely, he crosses his arms while putting his hands on the heads of the two sons. He puts his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger son, and he puts his left hand on the head of Manasseh, the older son. The right hand symbolized the bigger blessing and their dad, Joseph, gets kind of grumpy about it. To paraphrase it, he calls his dad out on the mistake...Um, Dad...you're pretty old...maybe you didn't realize Manasseh is older...and then Jacob simply replies he meant to do it that way. So end of discussion!

Taken out of context this seems like a strange little occurrence, but a little side note in my study Bible caught my eye. It reminded me that the younger brother had a history of getting the blessing in this family. So it wasn't so strange! After all, Jacob elevated Joseph, the second youngest son in his family, to be his favorite. Jacob also tricked his older brother out of his birthright and received a bigger blessing from his father, Isaac. And Isaac was given preference and inheritance over HIS older brother Ishmael. It was a whole long line of the younger brother over the older, totally contrary to the customs of that day, I imagine.

Um...so what?

Well, I would have filed this under interesting but not really relevant to my life(Hey, I'm the oldest!)...until...I was prodded with the concept of humility for the rest of the day. There are certain modern day prophets that exist today, although I think they are pretty rare. I am very fortunate to count Marvin Adams, the director of the Wabash Valley International House of Prayer, as a friend and one of these prophetic and spiritually beautiful people. Shortly after my Bible reading on Sunday, he posted this on facebook (used here with permission!):"I know of only one kingdom that isn't based on selfish gain, that is built on servanthood and that you enter through a cross. It's power is based in hiddeness and humility where the first are last and the last are first. I long for that kingdom to be fully manifest and restored to its rightful place. I have an ache til that happens."

BOOM! And with that, the dots were connected for me. Abraham and his descendants weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. There was a lot of deception and hurt in those generations taking blessings traditionally held by the oldest son. BUT. God had, and continues to have, a large scope of a plan and it was already unfolding. There were principles already being established in book one of the Bible that would mesh with the coming of Jesus hundreds of years later far down the same family line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Namely:The last will be first.
I had to laugh to myself when we arrived at church that evening and I opened up my bulletin to the sermon outline. First point: Humble ourselves. Text: All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God apposes the proud but shows favor to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)
Of course! A verse from the new testament on humility that quotes a verse from Proverbs in the Old Testament! So, God has intentionally been putting an emphasis and importance on humility in his people for a long time. I get it! But...what's the application here? For me?

Well, Peter was writing to the first century Christians being persecuted and killed for their beliefs. And even though they weren't high on the social ladder, they were instructed to persevere and also serve each other, too. My context is as a white, straight, Christian woman in her thirties living in the Midwest of the U.S.A. with her middle class (what DOES that mean???) family in the first part of the 21st century. By the standards of most of the population of the world and most of the population of my own country, state, and city, I am beyond privileged. I am no where near last in any measurable category. Sometimes I feel pretty far down in the ranks...in health...in patience...in athletic ability...but last? Probably not. (Unless you count the many 3200s I ran in high school track. I was last a lot.)

And if I'm honest, I do desire that other people would have the same opportunities as myself. To have their needs met physically and relationally. To have access to health and education and to pursue a career and family and not be persecuted and treated like someone without value. God made everyone unique and valuable enough for his perfect son to die for specifically THEM. Everyone should not just have equality but an infinite value placed upon their life. But how do I show others everyday that they do indeed hold this value? That they are beyond just equal to myself and that they can go first and I can go last? That is simply hard to live. Extremely hard. We struggle as a country to ensure equal rights for all and define what that even is. So how much more is the struggle to put others AHEAD of ourselves? I'm not trying to get political here. Really. I am just struggling to put into motion the huge challenge of Jesus of living a daily life where I put God first and others before myself.

I don't know about you, but I am guilty of taking the last ice cream treat in the freezer and eating it secretly before my kids find me. I am guilty of not doing a chore on purpose, and hoping my husband does it instead. I can't even put my own flesh and blood first with stupid little things, let alone big important things of spiritual impact! It's hard to get over myself and show others that I think they are valuable because God has made them of great value. So I ask God to change me and continue to work in my heart so that a life of selflessness and humility grows. It becomes natural and causes others to ask...why? It's so backwards to what the world defines as success. You can't help but stand out when you willingly become last.

So, along with this I think I'm going to study the life of Jesus for awhile to find examples of how he puts others first. Which is good, because I'm running out of chapters in Genesis. And I'll ask for examples from my readers. How do you put others first? How do you make yourself last (but not forget God has made you valuable, too! Even Jesus had to take care of himself and rest up!)?

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Matthew 19:30)Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

Friday, July 5, 2013

Well, I was talking with friends during the holiday...and I said it out loud. "I have written myself out...for the moment." Not that I don't think about writing or have anything to say...I'm sure inspiration could hit again anytime. But all my ideas are kind of...meh. But, I did semi-promise an update on my big list of things to do to keep the kids from being bored this summer...so I can surely do that! (If you want to check out the list, you can find it here: http://thatsnotmeanymore.blogspot.com/2013/05/im-bored-is-not-allowed-aka-sabelhaus.html .) Plus it gives me an excuse not to trim some weeds that have literally grown into trees around here. (Last summer= death and dryness. This summer= tropical rain forest. Ahhhh...Indiana.)

So. What have we been up to? Here's what we've crossed off the list so far!

1. We've visited the library several times. Annabelle and I tend to run of reading material quickly...and we went to the water show they had which was ok, but we'd seen the same one in Sullivan last year and it wasn't a very water show day.
2. We've made it to the Terre Haute Children's Museum once so far and I'm sure we'll be back before the summer ends.
3. We had a great picnic day at Dobbs park and looked around the Native American Museum, the Nature Center and took a nice walk on the trails.
4. We've ended up swimming at the pond at Fowler Park a few times. Kind of reminds me of Price's pond where I grew up...little beach...some shady trees to throw your stuff under. We like it, although I try to go earlier in the day. It seems more crowded later on, and since it's free...some of the, ahem, patrons, can have some colorful language. But I'm cheap. And I hate chlorine.
7. We did some strawberry picking. Very fun and the kids loved it. Since we were just picking to have some to munch on at home, an hour was plenty to pick and we came away with over five pounds and no sibling quarrels. I'm not sure I would take younger kids, though, as Jay continually wanted to pick berries from rows not assigned to us.
10. We attempted to ride bikes/walk on the Heritage Trail one day with our Parents of Young Kids group. Two out of three kids had bike wrecks and Jay howled for a good 15 minutes about a skinned knee...so...since I haven't been plentiful in the energy department lately...that's been our only attempt! Can't win them all...
12. We did read Bunnicula out loud at bedtime last month. I forgot how funny that book is! Joey and Annabelle loved it. Jay still prefers picture books and made that fact well known. Loudly.
16. We took a trip to the Bouncin' Barn this week. I always feel like I'm on HIGH MOM ALERT at that place, but the kids always have a blast.
18. One of the first things the kids chose to do on the list was make recycling bins for the house. They even printed out pictures of what items go in what bin and put them on the outside of each bin. We have been doing a good job of sorting out our paper, plastics, glass and metal this summer. I, for one, have been surprised about just how much we used to throw out that could be used again. Lesson learned for mom more than kids, I think! We had hoped to take a tour of the recycling center at ISU but their only scheduled tours were during our vacation and on an infusion day for me...so no luck on that so far. But the kids have been extremely helpful in this. I'm proud! :)
20. We did, in fact, see alpacas and nuns at the White Violet Center at Saint Mary of the Woods College. We got a very cool behind the scenes tour from a nun who showed us where they store and work the alpaca fiber into yarn and then into objects we can use. Then we wandered around to see the alpacas in the field, the gardens, and saw some of the pretty views/history markers on campus, too. I got lots of questions about life in the 1800's around Terre Haute and Catholicism, so it was definitely a big learning day!
35. We did get to camp and have s'mores, too! We took a four day/three night vacation to Ohio and camped for a couple nights followed by a spontaneous and more restful night in a hotel with a kid-friendly pool and a water slide. We did some hiking in the park we stayed in, saw the US Air Force Museum in Dayton and the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus. Pretty nice time for not a lot of dinero! And of course, we ate well both on and off the campsite. I tried Five Guys burgers for the first time. Yum!
36. I added this to the list after the blog post, but we made ice cream in a bag! Very fun. And louder than I thought possible with three kids shaking bags of ice violently on the kitchen table.

So...even though it sounds like we've done a lot so far...there's still many things on the list to choose from. And I STILL have to fight the kids from complaining of boredom and fight in myself the urge just to let them play video games all day. I think we're at the point in the summer where we're a little sick of being in each others' faces all the time. But over all...good stuff. I am so thankful that I have a summer with them like this. Carpe diem, baby!

About Me

I'm attempting to follow Jesus with my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I've been married 11 years to a man who truly was my answer to prayer and is as weird as I am. I'm a mom to three extremely beautiful kiddos ages 8, 7, and 4. I teach music lessons part-time and am starting to get involved in the worship ministry at Maryland Community Church in Terre Haute.